Just when it seemed Roger Goodell had almost single-handedly uplifted the NFL’s image with women — and silenced critics who say the National Football League’s acronym stands for “Not for Ladies” — the commissioner stumbled badly. Not once, but twice.

The first misstep came back in July, when Goodell suspended running back Ray Rice for two games after the Baltimore Ravens player sidestepped a criminal conviction for knocking his then-fiancée unconscious in an Atlantic City casino elevator. Rice was charged with third-degree assault. He avoided a trial by agreeing to enter an intervention program for first-time offenders that will leave him without a criminal record when he completes it.

The NFL’s punishment of Rice enraged a lot of people who complained that the professional sport deals more harshly with players who are caught using illegal drugs — a victimless crime. “I believe that you are sincere in your desire to learn from this matter and move forward toward a healthy relationship and successful career,” Goodell wrote Rice, sounding more like a doting parent than the man charged with protecting the NFL’s image and reputation.

Goodell seemed a lot more sensitive to the NFL’s image among women in 2009, when he agreed to resume providing The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports information for its annual “Racial and Gender Report Card” on employment practices.

Since 2008, the NFL’s grade for its gender hiring practices has gone from D to C, progress that Richard Lapchick, the report card’s author, credited largely to Goodell. “At the league office, the example is being set for the teams by continuing to make improvements in the hiring of women and people of color in senior positions,” he wrote in the executive summary of the 2013 report.

Even so, Goodell’s second slip came last week, when he announced a new policy for dealing with players who use women for punching bags. First-time offenders will be suspended for six games, he said, and a repeat offender will be banished from the league.

That’s the kind of tough talk a lot of people wanted to hear from Goodell in Rice’s case. But before the “better late than never” crowd chimes in, some attention needs to be paid to the caveats of the NFL’s new policy for dealing with domestic abusers.

The new six-game suspension comes with the possibility of a lesser penalty for “mitigating factors.” In other words, an offender could receive a lighter sentence for some, as yet, unstated reasons. That loophole plays into the hands of those who question what Janay Rice (she married Rice shortly after the incident) did to provoke the battering she suffered.

And as for Goodell’s tough talk of banishing second-time offenders from the NFL, that was watered down, too. They will be allowed to “petition for reinstatement after one year,” he said in a letter to NFL owners.

To repair the damage done the NFL by his initial handling of the Rice case, Goodell should have had his office conduct its own investigation of Rice’s violation of the league’s personal conduct policy and pressed for the release of all videos of the incident. Presumably, there is a video of what happened inside that elevator — including the blows that were struck.

To overcome apprehensions about his new get-tough policy, Goodell should be as specific in citing the mitigating factors that might reduce the punishment for first-time offenders, as he was in declaring what could cause them to get a more severe penalty. Also, the NFL commissioner ought to be just as explicit in listing the things a banned player must do to qualify for being allowed to rejoin an NFL team.

Goodell’s opportunity to do that may come soon. Just three days after he announced his new get-tough policy, San Francisco 49ers defensive end Ray McDonald was arrested for domestic violence.

Hopefully Goodell will really get it right this time.

DeWayne Wickham, dean of Morgan State University’s School of Global Journalism and Communication, writes for USA TODAY.